Cutie Patootie!

Lydia is our little Cutie Patootie!

It's no wonder we stay up at night talking about how wonderful she is long after she's gone to bed! Just like her smile lights up her entire face, having her in our family lights up our lives!

She will be two years old in a few weeks and I'm shocked at how quickly the time has gone by. Every day I tell Dan I wish I could freeze time because she is just so much fun and so perfect how she is right now. So, seeing as how she'll change again in a week, or has probably changed a lot since many of you last saw her, I've decided to make a "Lydia Today Top 10!" Hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

Lydia Today Top Ten

10. Baby my Baby: Watching Lydia baby her baby doll is a riot! She really treats it like it is real. Of course she wraps it up, rocks it and feeds it a bottle, but she also makes it feel textured books we read, points things out to it, sits it on the potty and makes hillarious pushing noises, and my favorite is when she brings it to the window and makes it wave good-bye and blow kisses to daddy with us as he leaves for work in the morning!

9. Naked Baby: Lydia has discovered the ability to undress herself, run around and away from you giggling "Nakey Baby!" Need I say more!

8. If it's Broken, Use TAPE: in Lydia's little mind tape fixes everything. In the past when a page in a book has torn or her paper hat from toddler time is broken, we've used tape to fix it. Thus last week when the toilet had been disassembled so Dan could fix a leak she told me it was broken and ran to the drawer asking for Tape so we could fix it!

7. Hide & Go Seek: Lydia loves to count to 10 and play Hide & Go Seek. Only thing is she gets so excited that she often comes running out of her hiding place before you get to find her!

6. The Number 9: Lydia loves to count and 9 seems to be her favorite number. When she was real little she would say "1,2,3,4,5,9,9,9,9!" She now counts rather well but her 1 to 10 includes two 9's and no number 5. It sounds like this, "1,2,3,4,9,6,7,8,9,10!"

5. Stalling: Lydia has mastered the art of Stalling! As soon as she senses it is time to get ready for bed she is suddenly starving and needs to "eat, eat, eat." Then she needs to brush her teeth, go to the bathroom, get a drink, read 20 books, and tries to start all over. Needless to say we have begun to get ready for bed earlier!

4. C is for Cookie, or is that "Tookie": Recently Lydia's C's sound more like T's. It might confuse some but I think it's rather cute to hear her say, "Tome here Daddy," or "Towboy Hat," or when she's playing with her kitchen set, "I'm just Tooking!"

3. Lydia's Lullabies: Up to now Lydia has always enjoyed rocking before bed while we sing her a couple lullabies. She usually picks one of the classics, but lately she won't go to bed until we sing . . . "O Christmas Tree," or "I like to Eat Apples and Bananas!" Since when were these classified as lullabies? It's a little challenging to make the second one sound like a nice lullaby when you're singing, "I like to Eat Epples and Benenes, Opples and Banonos . . ."

2. Daddy Help!: Dan, Dan the super Dad, if he can't do it no one can! In Lydia's eyes Daddy can fix everything and make any problem right. Last week Lydia kept asking for ice cream and I told her that she could have some that weekend when Daddy took her on their Daddy, Daughter Date. Sure enough they had ice-cream, a fun time and when I asked her what flavor she had she said "White!" She has since decided that any time she wants ice cream and I tell her we don't have any she wants to call dad because, "Daddy Help, Ice Cream, Daddy Help!" This applies not only to ice cream, but when it was raining and we couldn't go to the park she said, "Daddy help, go park, Daddy help!"

1. Spontaneous Hugs & Kisses: We have been the recipients of lots of cherished spontaneous love lately. Although Lydia will at times be very stingy with who and when she'll give her hugs and kisses, recently we've been sitting in a room and she'll run up to give us hugs and kisses. Earlier this week she was standing on the stairs when Dan came home to which she greeted him with, "Hi Daddy" then while raising up her arms she said, "HOLD" and as he picked her up she proceeded with squeezable hugs and sweet soft kisses!

Two words for you: Cutie Patootie!